John Hubley
Occupation / Title:Date of birth:21/05/1914
Date of death:21/02/1977
Birthplace:Marinette, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Biography
John Hubley was born in Marinette, Wisconsin, USA on May 21, 1914 to an artistic family.
He is best known as one half of the animating duo with his wife Faith Hubley, who formerly worked as a sound editor and a script clerk at various major studios. He formerly worked at Disney and UPA before opening his own studio, Storyboard Studios, where he frequently collaborated with Faith.
John Hubley died February 21, 1977 of complications from heart surgery at 62 years old. His final project was working on directing the film adaptation of the children’s novel Watership Down (1978), which was completed by producer and screenwriter Martin Rosen.
Family and early life
His mother attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and his grandfather worked as a painter, inspiring his own artistic paths.
Hubley was married to fellow animator Faith Hubley in 1955, and had four children: Mark, Ray, Emily, and Georgia Hubley. They left behind an incredible legacy, as Emily became a notable animator, whose works include segments of Blue Vinyl, as well as the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Georgia was the frontwoman for the indie rock band Yo La Tengo. John Hubley was previously married to a woman named Claudia Ross in 1941, and they divorced in 1954. They had three children: Ann Ricchioti, Susan Blakely and Mark Ross.
Career outline
Hubley got his start as a backgrounds and layout artist for Disney Studios in 1935, at the young age of 22. Hubley was taken on by Disney Studios, which was expanding drastically, taking on the production of feature films, hiring many students. Hubley quickly elevated throughout the ranks at Disney. He contributed to classic films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, Dumbo, Fantasia and Pinocchio, in carious uncredited and credited capacities. He created the memorable “Rite of Spring” sequence in Fantasia, a telling reflection of his work to come. He also made training films for the U.S. Navy during World War II.
During his time spent at Disney, his personal art style evolved into a minimalist type of animation, one that was far removed from the realistic, painterly tableaus that he was making at the studio.
During Disney’s strike 1941, set off by organizational chaos and increasing mechanical standardization, Hubley, already having several grievances with Walt’s tendencies of interfering in the creative process, left Disney during the animators’ strike against the studio in 1941 to first join the Screen Gem’s animation department of Columbia Pictures. Promoted to director in 1942, Hubley led the Phantasies and Rhapsodies cartoon series. Later on during the war, he joined the United States Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, creating animations for the state.
In 1943, Hubley joined the Industrial Films and Poster Service Studios, which would later become known as UPA (United Productions of America), a studio that was formed by former Disney animators. Hubley was integral in helping the studio develop its signature and groundbreaking style which radically differed from the other animation studios of the era. Known for its drastic departure from the realism of Disney, UPA produced post-modernist, sparsely decorated animations that were highly stylized in design. Hubley led the creation of Robin Hoodlum in 1948, the first UPA cartoon nominated for an Oscar, as well as The Magic Flute one year later, also nominated. Hubley has also attributed to creating the iconic character, Mr. Magoo, and producing Gerald McBoing-Boing in 1950.
Hubley would have continued doing work with UPA if not for the Red Scare in the 1950s, which forced him out of the studio due to his left-wing political leaning. He was identified as being tied to the Communist Party, and was subsequently blacklisted from Hollywood in 1952 after refusing to give up names to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. That year, his final short with UPA was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Animated Short on “Rooty Toot Toot” (1951).
In 1956, he moved to New York and started his own animation studio, Storyboard Studios. Since the advertising industry was less affected by the blacklist, the studio initially did commercials for television. It was during this time that he met Faith Hubley (who at the time went by Faith Elliott), a sound and music editor who would become his creative partner and wife.
Married in 1955, the couple created the extremely successful Adventures of an * (1956). Many of their films were inspired by their children’s fantasies. They created wildly popular animated television commercials such as the 1956 commercial for Maypo, featuring Hubley’s son’s voice which was often uncredited. Although John and Faith have stressed that their work is of equal collaboration, John’s name is often written about independently as an auteur, with his wife reduced to the role of a labourer. The couple worked on many short films, creating independent shorts with a focus on emotional realism, using both traditional narrative as well as experimental, non-linear forms for over 20 years as collaborators, showcasing their works at festivals all around the world, and winning many awards.
In 1959, he and Faith made an animated short called “Moonbird”, where his sons, Mark and Ray, were child voice actors in the film. The film won the Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoons) in the same year. They also used the voices of their daughters, Emily and Georgia, in their later films such as Windy Day (1968), a short about a conversation between two girls staging the central theme. Partially illustrated by the girls, Georgia and Emily complain about the lack of female characters they can identify within animation and converse about many realist themes.
The Hubleys won two more Oscars in the 1960s: one for “The Hole” (1962) and one for “A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature” (1964). The two films heavily feature music as its main focus, with the former featuring jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and actor George Matthews, while the latter brought two songs from the eponymous best-selling easy listening band, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, to life. In 1967, they released the incredible Urbanissimo, manifesting a subtle critique of capitalism and overdevelopment, the stealing of the worker’s labour by a towering force. This cartoon wonderfully uses jazz music and subtle, shifting marker lines to allegorize capitalist growth sputtering out of control, collapsing in a heap of smoke and ashes.
John and Faith would go on to work on Sesame Street in its early days, making 10 animated projects for the show. Their final project together would be “A Doonesbury Special” (1977), an adaptation of the controversial comic strip written by the Hubleys and Gary Trudeau, who created the comic.
They made at least one independent animation per year until John’s death in 1977, with Faith continuing on afterwards with the renamed Hubley Studios.
Personal style
The Hubleys’ work deals with various social political issues, and the couple were a pair of independent spirits whose work is noted for its graphic, free style, and blending of mediums, antithetical to the corporate studio structure of their contemporaries. Cultivated in their inspiration, and referencing a plethora of artists like Picasso, Matisse, as well as movements such as deconstruction, post-modernism, minimalism and surrealism.
Honors and awards
In 1975, the Hubleys were awarded with a Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award from ASIFA. In 1985, the Hubleys were acknowledged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts with an exhibition of their works, A Salute to the Hubley Studio. 10 years later, there was another retrospective of their work at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. which travelled to New York and displayed at the MoMA which included sketches, storyboards and process images from their works.
References:
Cwik, Greg. “Why John Hubley Was One of the Best Animators You’ve Never Heard Of.” IndieWire, 2014. Web.
Foster, Gwendolyn A. Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1995. Print.
Flint, Peter B. “John Hubley, 62, Leading Creator, Producer of Animated Films, Dies.” The New York Times, 1977. Print.
“John Hubley: Biography.” Turner Classic Movies, n.d. Web.
Lenburg, Jeff. Who’s Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television’s Award-Winning and Legendary Animators. New York: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2006. Print.
McGilligan, Pat. “Faith Hubley: An Interview.” Film Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 2, 1988-89, pp. 2-18.